Processing of a silver halide color photographic material basically comprises two steps: a color-developing step and a desilvering step. The desilvering step comprises a bleaching step and a fixing step or comprises a monobath bleach-fix step, that is used in combination with them or singly. If necessary, in addition thereto, an additional processing step, such as a washing step, a stop-processing step, a stabilizing step, and a pre-processing for the acceleration of development, is added.
In recent years, reduction in the replenishment rate of a bleach-fix solution and reduction in the amount of waste liquor are strongly desired for the purpose of making bleach-fix processing rapid, reducing environmental pollution, saving resources, and reducing cost. However, reduction in the replenishment rate and reduction in the amount of waste liquor have not actually been practically achieved. This is mainly because the reduction in the replenishment rate makes the dwell time of the solution long, which increases the concentration of silver ions that accumulate in the solution due to the desilvering reaction, or it increases the mixed ratio of the color developer, with results in both cases that the desilvering characteristics drops.
It is known that, generally, when a silver halide emulsion high in silver chloride content is used, the development or fixing can be attained in a short period of time, so that a silver halide photographic material suitable for rapid processing can be obtained. However, it is actually impossible to make the replenishment rate as extremely low as 150 ml per m.sup.2 of the photographic material in a desilvering step.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. Hei. 2-32 (1990) describes that the development can be made rapid by using a high-silver-chloride emulsion having (111) planes. Further Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. Sho. 64-70741 (1989) describes that a desilvering step is carried out rapidly. However, since grains having (111) planes have such a defect that adsorption of dyes is weak, they cannot practically be used under present conditions in view, for example, of preservability.